1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique of searching for a service available on a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
Searching for a service available on a network is commonplace these days. When a user wants to search a network for a service, the user specifies the type or features of the services as search criteria and causes a search engine to search for the service (Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2001-109693).
However, conventional service searches are not easy to use because setting search criteria is complicated. For example, when a user wants to search for a service that sends data to particular destinations, the user must check the destinations to which the user wants to send and specify a data transmission method from among many data transmission methods such as G3-FAX, G4-FAX, iFAX, IP-FAX, SMB, FTP, and WEBDAV for each of the destinations.
A service that transmits data using the same G3-FAX or G4-FAX protocol may use a device that permits only transmission to domestic destinations and a device that permits transmission to both domestic and foreign destinations. Therefore, it is very unfriendly and tricky for a user to specify service search attributes.
The flow of operations performed by a user to use a service on a network is very inefficient. For example, when a user wants to perform color facsimile transmission, the user specifies search attributes like “Type of service”=“Transmission service”, “Transmission method”=“G3-FAX”, “Color transmission”=“Support”, and “Destination”=“Overseas” to perform a search for a service. Then the user specifies a device on a list of service providing devices searched. In addition, the user must make settings such as “Reading mode=Color”, “Transmission method=G3-FAX”, “Recipient's phone number (for international transmission)” to issue a request for processing to a service providing device. In sum, to use a service, the user must provide inputs for searching for the service and inputs for executing the service. Thus, the use of a service requires considerably redundant operations.